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[Zantan]

I was just looking at the descriptions of my artifacts, and noticed that my artifact alder grate has an image of an andesite bracelet (how a wood carving can indicate the material of the bracelet is beyond me).  This was fairly specific, so I checked my other artifacts, and sure enough, the artifact before this one had been an andesite bracelet.  I assumed that this was what was being referenced on the grate, but when I looked at the description for the andesite bracelet, it too had an image of an andesite bracelet.  Do I have two artifacts which refer to some mythic andesite bracelet from the Age of Legends?  Or did my craftsdwarf decide that the most important thing to document was his own creations?  If so, is this a bug, or serious pretentiousness?

As a more general side note, what am I supposed to do if I want more information on the history which my artifacts document?  From what I understand, I would have to abandon my fortress and use Legends mode...

[Danarca]

No, your bracelet is featuring itself.

[Murphy]

Go to data/init/init.txt, find the [SHOW_ALL_HISTORY_IN_DWARF_MODE:NO] tag and switch it to yes. You should then be able to see the history behind the engravings and decorations.

[Nexii Malthus]

Yeah, it is refering itself.

Also you can enable historic info in the init.txt for artifacts, images and engravings.

[nutzy]

Truly self indulgent dwarfs will even name their artifact after themselves 

[Thexor]

Infinite recursion is a central focus for all programmed entities, dwarves included. 



But yeah, engravings (including the ones on artifacts) focus on major events of the fortress. Creating an artifact is a major event. And, somehow, the artifact is listed as 'created' before it looks for major events.
It's really common that your first artifact will be self-referential - you don't have any other artifacts competing for engraving space, and if you genned a boring world there won't be many other interesting things to carve either.

[Sensei]

You can get the feature of engraved artifacts to make sense if you manage to get a world with a few good fortresses in it.

[Stargrave]

i once had a legendary engraver make hundreds of engravings of that time he made a legendary engraving. leave it to a dwarf to figure out how to stroke himself off with a chisel and hammer.

[Brent Not Broken]

When I get the artifact iron plate mail that happens to feature an image of an iron plate mail in iron, I don't interpret it as the mark of an arrogant crafter. I interpret it as a label. You know, in case the dwarves forget.

"Hey Urist, what's this thing here?"
"I dunno. Turn it over; see if there's a label."
"Oh, right. Iron plate mail, then."

[thunderclan]

I find it interesting when other civilizations start featuring your artifacts in their images.

I took a brief trip to Adventure Mode today as a Human. Walked around the town looking at the images on things and discovered that the Humans had apparently decided to feature one of my current fortresses artifacts (A Larch Bracelet) on their silver coins.

[Leafsnail]

I did see that adamantine floodgate with three images of itself on.  And "Planepacked" probably has dozens, in addition to the entire history of the world it was built in...

[Rowanas]

See, now planepacked is a real fey mood. Documenting all that has ever happened is moodish. Creating a wooden bed out of one piece of larch is NOT A FECKING MOOD YOU STUPID DWARVES!

I'm not bitter and angry at all...

[Leafsnail]

Yeah, in the same way that withdrawing from society and trying to create a perfect fantasy strategy game is moodish .  DF is Toady's planepacked.

[Brent Not Broken]

I find it interesting when other civilizations start featuring your artifacts in their images.

Several fortresses back, I had a strange mood result in a goblin bone weapon rack. After it was made, I noticed it started showing up as a design on the clothing and gear of the goblin invaders who came later-- at least three or four different times.

I like to think it was the goblins' way of psyching themselves up for revenge. "Don't forget: They killed Tom and made furniture out of his bones! Kill them all!"

[RedWarrior0]

I did see that adamantine floodgate with three images of itself on.  And "Planepacked" probably has dozens, in addition to the entire history of the world it was built in...

According to the wiki, Planepacked has 73 images of itself on it. AND NO CHEESE!!!